Detecting Planets

     I was reading today at Space.com that scientists have figured out a way to photograph earth like planets in other solar systems that are light years away. Until now, we couldn't shoot them because of the scattering of light from their parent star (or sun), minor imperfections in our telescopes and various other factors.

     Scientists have now developed the technology to overcome these obstacles in the form of a chronograph. "It works and it's ready to go," said one senior research assistant. Theoretically, it could be put aboard a spacecraft today and start working asap. They are hoping for it to go aboard the Terrestrial Planet Finder, but unfortunately there's no launch date yet for lack of funding.

     This bugs me. With all the money our government and our private citizens spend on pointless crap, we can't afford to launch a probe that could detect AND take pictures of earth-like planets that could eventually lead to finding life elsewhere in our galaxy. Even with Bush's speech about funding and space exploration, I think everyone's far too caught up in the Mars exploratory committee. Which is important and interesting as well, but I think this is more important and far more interesting.

Just my $.02 though.


~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com